Judge rules Abrego Garcia's lawyers can seek sanctions against government

The judge overseeing the case of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Wednesday granted a request from his attorneys to file a motion seeking sanctions against the government for failing to comply with discovery requests.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in April ordered the Trump administration to provide discovery evidence showing the process by which Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador despite him being issued a 2019 court order barring his deportation to his home country due to the fear of persecution.

Wednesday's order from Xinis comes after Abrego Garcia's attorneys said in a court filing that some of the discovery productions by the government include "highly redacted internal messages" and other materials that were classified as "Confidential or Attorney's Eyes Only" -- without a motion to designate the items as being under seal.

The judge directed the government to file its response within seven days of the motion's filing.

In a separate order Wednesday, Judge Xinis ordered the unsealing of several filings related to the court's order for expedited discovery, including the transcript of a nonpublic hearing that was held on April 30.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that he is an MS-13 member.

Judge Xinis ruled in April that the Trump administration must "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return to the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, "with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs."

On Monday, Abrego Garcia's attorneys filed a response to a motion by the government to dismiss the case, calling the argument for dismissal a "jurisdictional gambit."

"The Government asks this Court to accept a shocking proposition: that federal officers may snatch residents of this country and deposit them in foreign prisons in admitted violation of federal law, while no court in the United States has jurisdiction to do anything about it," the attorneys said in the filing.

"This Court, the Fourth Circuit, and the Supreme Court each rejected that jurisdictional gambit," the attorneys said. "All three courts unanimously affirmed a preliminary injunction that the Government must facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia from El Salvador to the United States."

In their 26-page filing, Abrego Garcia's attorneys also said there is no indication to date that the government has tried to take all available steps in good faith to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.

"History shows that when the Government makes good faith efforts to facilitate someone's return, it succeeds," they said. "Defendants' refusal to seek Abrego Garcia's return in good faith, while simultaneously claiming his return is out of their hands, does not negate redressability."

The attorneys asked the court to shorten the government's time to file a reply brief from 14 days to seven days, saying that "further briefing on recycled arguments should not prolong a case that has already dragged on far too long for Abrego Garcia and his family."